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The participants of the International MBA have taken on the Early Makers philosophy while working on their own business ideas during their New Venture class with Professor Rickie Moore. The class has inspired some participants who were not initially interested in entrepreneurship, to choose this path for their future endeavors. 

For the New Ventures class, we had to create a new venture and produce a report of the feasibility of the business venture.  Before taking the class I thought I would not have any good business ideas nor did I think I would ever want to pursue starting a business.  However, after the first class, I realized this was my opportunity to explore my personal interests and to take a chance on pursuing something without recourse.

I came up with two great business ideas, but ultimately decided to chose the one about which I was personally more passionate.  I come from Los Angeles where craft breweries are abundant and where I have access to new, experimental, and barrel aged beers anytime I want.  When I arrived in Lyon, I could not find the same quality of offerings I was use to buying.  So I told myself: If I cannot find the type of beer I enjoy, why not make it?  Luckily I was able to convince three other colleagues to join my venture and thus our craft brewery Lion D’Or was born. 

I took this project a step further and actually brewed a beer; we were the only group to have a product.  This was a big accomplishment for me because I had never before brewed a beer, I was merely an aficionado of craft beer.  Also, we only had six weeks to work on our business venture and in that time, we were able to brew a beer and host tasting events.  Ultimately the project was a huge success.  We discovered that there is a real market desire for craft beer in France and that if we open a full scale brewery and tap room, our conservative feasibility study displayed it would be very successful.  Overall, I am proud of my team and the results we achieved.  I plan to continue to brew and sell beer to see where it leads me.

Daniel Ortiz | International MBA 2017-2018 | USA